Glossary

Kasho (迦葉)

S. Kāśyapa. Also called Makakasho (Makakasho 摩訶迦葉, S. Mahākāśyapa). A disciple of Shakamuni Buddha, an arhat, renowned for his ascetic practice. In the mythology of the Zen lineage, Kasho is the first in the line of twenty-eight Indian ancestral teachers that culminates with Bodaidaruma. He is said to have been the only member of the audience who understood what Shakamuni Buddha meant by holding up a flower in a wordless sermon, and thus to have been recognized by Shakamuni as heir to the formless buddha-mind (busshin 佛心) that is the dharma transmitted by the Zen lineage.